Another elder rip off scam.  Please be alert to unusual elder financial activities.  Family members and banks would do well to watch out for seniors.  These scams are generally localized and carried out by single or small groups of people.  If you hear of some elder scam notify the local law enforcement authorities and also TheKeysPlease so we can get the word out.

San Jose cops: Notorious con man bilked woman, 86, out of $200,000

By Sean Webby

swebby@mercurynews.com

Posted: 08/30/2011 06:17:32 AM

Fresh from prison for his latest con, Lawrence Emilio Maschino Jr. is back in business, police say, out there somewhere, either blond or brown-haired depending on the hour — with the life savings he allegedly sweet-talked from a jailmate’s 86-year-old mom.

Yes, this is the same guy who four years ago bamboozledSilicon Valley’s arts community into believing he was a deep-pocketed, Harvard-educated benefactor just looking to bestow his riches around town — when he could finally find his wallet.

Maschino, 43, skippedSan Joseabout a week ago with a freshly bleached smile and a silver Porsche Boxster he bought with some of his latest victim’s cash, police say.

Then, according to court documents, he flew to Vegas, bought some shades and hit the casinos, then jetted toL.A., bought some Giorgio Armani threads and caught a Cirque du Soleil show. With an angry parole agent and an eagerSan Josedetective hot on his tail, he is on the run. Again.

‘The perfect con man’

It had been just weeks since Maschino was paroled after a similar swindle — stealing the identity of a man he met in jail and sleeping on the couch of that guy’s mother. And it’s only been four years since he was caught bilking some San Jose business folk out of thousands of dollars in luxury hotel stays, steak dinners and plastic surgery. A list of Maschino’s scams — and inevitable arrests and convictions — dates more than a decade

anand stretches from Silicon Valley toSouth Carolina.

“He is charming, intelligent, articulate — and a sociopathic liar,” saidSanta ClaraCountyprosecutor Cherie Bourlard, who helped put Maschino behind bars just two years ago. “He is the perfect con man.”

Maschino’s latest alleged victim may have lost more than $200,000 when she made the mistake of offering him the chance to sleep on her couch.

To the elderly woman, her son’s friend was charming and sweet. He had a job, she believed, working for Ghiradelli Chocolate inSan Francisco. He was even a Mormon, she believed, just like her. All he wanted was to get a loan so he and her son could go in together in his tree-trimming business, according to police.

Problem was, her son didn’t know anything about the plan.

Beginning early this month, Maschino accompanied the woman to her bank again and again to help her cash checks from her home equity account, police say. The woman, who police say suffers from short-term memory loss, reportedly told bank employees he was like a son to her.

Investigators believe the woman repeatedly forgot she had already withdrawn money, and that she was bilked out of $204,000.

Maschino disappeared. Days later, alerted by Alliance Credit Union to the suspicious withdrawals, police and investigators told the woman about Maschino.

“I don’t like to be buffaloed,” the woman said in an interview. Police asked that the woman not be identified because she was the victim of elder abuse. “If he was a Mormon, then he did not act exactly like one. What a pain in the neck. I hope nobody else runs into him.”

Bourlard and San Jose Police detective Mark Huiskens lay part of the blame on employees of the Bank of America branch at Oakridge mall for failing to notice their elderly customer was showing up with a strange man and withdrawing tens of thousands of dollars in a series of visits. Bourlard said the bank should have recognized the classic signs

of elder fraud.

Since 2007, banks and other financial institutions are required by law to report when they suspect financial fraud.

Police on the hunt

Bank of America officials, however, said their employees acted “appropriately” and reported their suspicion to Adult Protective Services, as required.

“We asked if she was sure she wanted to make the transaction,” said Colleen Haggerty, a bank spokeswoman. “She assured us she wanted to make the transaction and that the man was a friend of her son’s.”

Maschino may have found a bountiful bilking ground here inSilicon Valley. In perhaps his boldest scam, four years ago he showed up inSan Josewith the trappings of a philanthropic dream come true. He was residing at theFairmont, chatting affably about attending Harvard at 13 and practicing heart surgery with such brilliance thatStanfordMedicalCenterhad been courting him.

He said he inherited about $99 million in Yahoo and Google stock from his late father.

The truth is his father is alive and is not a wealthy tech investor. Maschino was eventually tracked down inTexas, where he had tried to scam a $160,000 Mercedes-Benz from a couple of dealerships.

He got out in 2009 and within weeks was conning again. This time, opening an account in someone else’s name, depositing fake checks and then withdrawing the money from an ATM.

When Huiskens caught him that time, Maschino — affably representing himself — pleaded guilty to a felony charge of writing checks with insufficient funds, using a victim’s personal information without authorization, and grand theft of personal property over $400.

Sentenced to four years, he served a year and half. Now Huiskens is back on his trail.

“I am very, very interested in getting my hands on him again,” he said. “I want to make sure he is not conning more and more people.

“But that is what he does.”